Princess Sofia of Sweden opens up about bullying she faced: ‘It was very tough’

By Meaghan Wray

August 14, 2018

From reality
star and magazine model to full-blown Swedish royalty,
Princess Sofia experienced quite the career shift
when she met her Prince Charming,
Prince
Carl Philip
. But
it wasn’t without some struggles. The mother of two revealed in a recent
interview with Sweden’s
TV4 that she
faced a lot of backlash from royal watchers who weren’t too sure her past could
fit seamlessly into the royal fold.

Sofia
experienced a great deal of online bullying when she and Carl Philip first went
public with their romance: “I was met with an enormous hate storm from people
who had opinions about me as a person, about my relationship. I was surprised
and it definitely affected me. I didn’t understand that people had such need to
express how badly they felt about me. It was very tough.”

A post shared by Prinsparet (@prinsparet) on Aug 10, 2018 at 8:53am PDT

Not only has
Sofia found strength in her experience, but it’s also inspired a new charitable
passion to bring to her royal duties. She’s turned her past with bullying into
a cause, giving back to youth in need of support and guidance. The 33-year-old
and her husband started the Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia Foundation,
which works to combat hate speech and online bullying, especially in schools.

Sofia knows
how important it is to help victims of bullying when they’re young: “I was
adult when this happened to me, so I can only imagine in a school environment
and in other instances how big this can be in a child’s world. They don’t have
the same perspective on life and don’t have the understanding that it’s not
really about you and that you should just see past it.” Now, Sofia opts to turn
a blind eye to any news about herself, choosing to focus on her beautiful
family of four, including adorable two-year-old
Prince
Alexander
and
11-month-old
Prince
Gabriel
.

A post shared by Prinsparet (@prinsparet) on Aug 12, 2018 at 4:42am PDT

As her sons
get older, it is, of course, important for the parents to help them through any
tough times they may encounter. Their mom attended a seminar recently as part
of the festival
Let’s Make Love Great
Again
. As one of the main speakers at the event, the royal opened up about
how important it is to provide support to children and youth: “We have said
that we plan to always have an open dialogue on the level of our children. It
is partly about giving our children the tools and tools to deal with life in
general. Also, the network they have is very important.”

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